31iisrttlantuns.

The Protectionist papers announce with much flourish, that Lord Stan- ley will be entertained at Merchant Tailors' Hall on the 2d of April. " Upwards of eighty Peers and more than two hundred Members of the House of Commons have signed the requisition inviting him." Lord Stanley would seem to have needed a great deal of requesting. On for- mer occasions, the simple invitation of the great Conservative guild was accepted as a sufficient bidding.

According to the Limerick Chronicle, Sir William Somerville, M.P., is to be created a Peer forthwith.

Lord Langdale took his leave of the bar practising in the Rolls Court .on Tuesday. Mr. Turner, in a few appropriate words of farewell eulogy, expressed the sincere regret of the bar at the retirement of a judge who is equally distinguished by legal erudition and moral dignity. Lord Langdale, with some emotion, threw back the professional eulogy ; say- ing, at a cooler moment a close inspection of the reports of his decisions will show how greatly he has been assisted by the industry and integrity of the bar.

Sir John Romilly was sworn in before the Lord Chancellor, as Master of the Rolls yesterday morning.

Sir Alexander Cockburn has been promoted to the office of Attorney- General, in place of Sir John Romilly ; and is succeeded as Solicitor- General by Mr. Page Wood.

The new Vice-Chancellorship will be given to Mr. Turner or Mr. Kindersley, says the Morning Ch^-'onicle, Mr. Turner is M.P. for Co- ventry ; Mr. Kindersley was the last Master in Chancery appointed : both are highly competent men.

Mr. Matthew Davenport Hill is appointed to be one of the Commission- ers of the Court of Bankruptcy, in room of the late Sergeant Ludlow, the Bristol Commissioner.

Much anxiety has been caused to the friends of the Great Exposition by the effect of the recent wet weather ; and its enemies, including the vast army of croakers, have begun to be "in hopes." The amount of wet that has fallen from the roof is considerable ; and doubts at once arose as to the sufficiency of the design to secure a proper drainage of the roof, or of the execution by the contractors. The mode of failure has not been clearly or minutely explained. It is partly ascribed to broken panes of glass ; but also to some other cause—the indifferent tenacity of the putty round the panes, or the defective working of the Paxton gutters from not having been painted soon enough. It has been observed by casual visiters, that shavings and other rubbish had been suffered to make way towards the hollow columns ; any clogging of which would account for bad drainage of condensed vapour or water leaked in ; but how could the water get in ? how can the drainage be prevented ? These are still urgent questions. The wetted floor has been marked so as to record the leaking parts of the roof, and advantage will be taken of the first fair weather to investigate and repair the faults in the roof. Meanwhile, the painting is prosecuted as rapidly as the weather permits, and pitch is tried as a means of rendering the gutters water-tight.

The Trustees of the British Museum have ordered, that from the be- ginning of May to the end of August during the present year, the rooms containing the collection of the printed books shall be kept open for the first five days of the week for the public to walk through, like the gallery of antiquities or natural history. On Saturday and Sunday admission will be refused to all persons indiscriminately. This arrangement is only temporary, and the former rule will be resumed on the 1st of Sep- tember.

Some years since, the Directors of the Liverpool and Manchester and the Grand Junction Railway Companies employed Mr. John Gibson- the -sculptor to execute a statue of the then living George Stephenson, the father of the railway system in its developed shape. Since the commis-

sion was given, Mr. Stephenson has departed, and his name b torical ; and the two Companies above named, together with the London and Birmingham, have merged in the confederation of the North-western Company. The statue is completed, and has arrived at or is on its way to England. It has been provisionally decided to place it in St. George's Hall of Commerce at Liverpool ; but as Mr. Gibson will be in this coun- try during the present year of the Exhibition, his opinion on a proper site will be taken.

The death of Thomas Brand, Lord Dacre, an affectionate personal friend and warm political follower of Fox, and afterwards a stanch sup- porter of Earl Grey, has excited scarcely a passing comment from the daily press. The Globe alone marks his passing away with a feeling re- miniscence of his fine personal qualities, and of the hearty and not incon- siderable services with which he assisted the cause of Reform when it was even dangerously unpopular to give such assistance. Ho was a man of good parts, and of a simple and generous character which made him a cherished friend. The title of Dacre is one of the most ancient of the English Baronies ; it was created in 1307: the late Lord was nineteenth Baron. He is succeeded by his brother, General Henry Otway Trevor, who took the name of Trevor in 1824 on succeeding to estates in Sussex.

Results of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week ending on Saturday last.

Ten Weeks 01'1841-50.

Week of 1851.

ZymotIc Diseases 1,778 • .. • 321 Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable scat 495 • • • • 47 Tubercular Diseases 1,852 • • • 228 Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses 1,251

134 Diseases of the Heart and Blood-, emeLs 320 • • • • 53 Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration .. • • 1,769 • • • • 350

Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion

584 • • • • 75 Diseases of the Kidneys, fie 98 • • • . 12 Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, Sc 112 • • • • 9 Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones, Joints, &e 67 • • • • 10 Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, Se 11

3 Malformations 20 • • • • 2 Premature Birth 246 • • • • 18 Atrophy 148

25 Age 666

69 Sudden 178 • . • • 21 Violence, Privation, Cold, andIntemperance 325

30

Total (including unspecified causes) 9,966

IA12

Nancy Coe, a girl of thirteen, has obtained, at the Liverpool Assizes, 1201. damages from Messrs. Platt and Co., millowners of Lostock, near Bolton, as compensation for hurts caused by unprotected machinery. Coe was not in the employment of the defendants ; but one of their men, with their sanc- tion, brought her to the mill to sweep a floor : while thus engaged, a shaft which was not completely boxed in caught her frock, and she was whirled round, her right arm torn off, and her ankle broken. The defendants had provided surgical aid and whatever was necessary for the girl during her ill- ness, and had since paid her wages, promising to continue them during good behaviour.

The Dublin plavgoers have had a riot, and have nearly torn down a theatre, because of a shoclangly bad riddle. " Pablo Fanque the acrobat " adver- tised the gift of a pony and ear to the propounder of the best riddle : there, were 1056 competitors, and the prize was awarded to Miss Emma Stanley, for a conundrum so mediocre that we will not transcribe it—it is neither good enough nor bad enough for notice. The audience, touched with a sense of national degradation, that out of more than a thousand Irish not one could make a better piece of wit, broke into such excesses that a body of police had to be marched into the building to preserve it from wreck. Miss Stanley, however, accepted the prize, ordered its sale, and gave the produce to the Lord Mayor for distribution in charity.

While three fishing-cobles were making for laud at the village of Now- biggin, the sea running very high, one was struck by a wave and upset. Another coble hastened to render aid, and the crew got their comrades into the boat ; but a sea overwhelmed this also, and all the fishermen were plunged into the water. Only one escaped to the shore ; and no fewer than nine young men, several of whom were married, perished in the waves.

Thomas Scott, a murderous whitesmith in Leeds, fired a pistol at Mistress Widdop ; the ball struck a bone in the stays of Mrs. Widdop, made her hic- cough, gave her a stitch in the side, and then glancing off pursued its course no one knows whither. Thomas Scott then fired another pistol into himself; and, for want of stays, he lies badly wounded in the Infirmary. Nothing ever so clearly as this proved the sanatory use of stays, or the evils to the human figure of not using them ; and as it is the only use of stays to a healthy person one ever heard of, one ought to be the more struck with the force and value of the proof. But it is equally plain that stays are still defective ; for if Mrs. Widdop had worn a cuirass of steel all round, she would have escaped also the hiccough, the stitch, and the bruise.